Just a running fool!: Running in Koh Samui

Bonjour,

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your families!

I spent last week in Koh Samui with my family. It is one of the numerous islands in Thailand and a very lovely place.

We got a taxi from Pattaya to Don Mueang airport in Bangkok and flew to Nakhon Si Thammarat airport. We flew with Air Asia and I have to say that I was rather impressed with them. The planes were clean and new and the members of the crew very nice. We then got a coach to Donsak Pier and finally a ferry to Lipa Noi Pier in Koh Samui. We stayed at the Ibis hotel in Bophut. The hotel is fairly new and we had a nice stay there. It is literally built on the beach so we did not use the swimming-pool too much! The location is great as it only takes a few minutes to walk to the Fisherman's village where there are lots of restaurants and shops. At night most of the restaurants have either a terrace or tables on the beach and we ate there almost every day. I will do another post on where we went and what we did on Koh Samui.

I had taken my running kit with me and I went running three times. I did not run on the beach as the sand was not hard enough. I do not know about you but when I get to run in a new place it is very often that I find the perfect spot just before I leave. Well, it happened again!

My runs 1 and 2 were one the same route, the first one just being a bit shorter. It is not always easy to run in Thailand. I am not referring only to the heat but also to the terrible traffic, the wild dogs and so on. For these two runs I just followed the road along the coast. I basically ran on the side of a main road. The scenery was nice as I could see the sea but I am never too comfortable when I have to run on the side of a main road with so many cars, scooters and so on.

Below are a few photos taken during run 2. Sorry about the quality once again. I took them with my phone and there are not great. I do need to look for a small camera that I could take with me when I go running. Please feel free to give me some tips if you have any!

During run 2 I went to the Big Buddha Temple - Wat Phra Yai, as you can see on the two photos above. I did not visit the temple though.

When people talk about what they have seen in Thailand it is often about - in no particular order - the blue sky, the clear water and the amazing beaches. It is true that if you visit Thailand this is what you are likely to see. As a runner and also someone who is very conscious about environment issues - the two probably go together - I have to say that it also sadly very dirty. If you run in Thailand this it is something you must have in mind. Every time I go for a run, even in the jungle, I get to see a place where people just throw stuff away. I am not saying this in a bad way. I fully appreciate that most people here have more urgent priorities. It is just sad to see such a beautiful country spoiled with rubbish. I hope this will improve in the future and I know that there is already a lot being done in this respect.

For run 3 I changed and I went in the other direction and I eventually found a perfect spot to run in Koh Samui. I also started by following the main road but after about 2 miles I took a road going towards the middle of the island. It was just great. It was initially a new road and then what could be described as a cement track/road. There was almost no traffic and it was very quiet. I had not taken my phone so I do not have any photos. After a while, on both sides I just could see trees and wild nature. It got a bit tough at some point with a rather steep hill. I kept going as far as possible but I had to stop at some point as I did not have anything to drink. We were leaving the following day so I did not get the chance to run this route again but if one day I am back in Koh Samui I would definitively like to run there again. I would like to know whether it is in fact possible to run from one side of the island to the other. From what I can see on the map below that would appear to be possible. It seems that there are also tracks in the forest. It might actually be a National Parc of Thailand so I do not know whether there is an entrance-fee to be paid and if there are any limitations about where to run.

That’s all for now.

Take care and enjoy your runs.

Vincent